Sheerine Alemzadeh is an attorney and the co-founder and co-director of Healing to Action, a non-profit organization building a worker-led movement to end gender violence. A legal expert on workplace sexual violence, Sheerine has forged strategic partnerships across the nation to develop community-based, survivor-centered responses to gender-based violence against low-wage workers. Sheerine received the prestigious Skadden Fellowship in 2011 to launch a project at the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation that advanced workplace justice for survivors of sexual violence. Media includes: Huffinton Post, Chicago Law Bulletin, The Chicago Report, Michigan Journal of Gender and Law.
Susan Antilla is a financial columnist who writes about gender discrimination, securities regulation, and about issues affecting the average investor. She has written about business and finance for 30 years, authoring columns about Wall Street for USA Today, The Baltimore Sun, The New York Times, and Bloomberg. Antilla is author of “Tales From the Boom-Boom Room: The Landmark Legal Battles That Exposed Wall Street’s Shocking Culture of Sexual Harassment,” which was honored as “Best Book of the Year” by the Connecticut Press Club.
Melissa Silverstein is a writer and speaker with an extensive expertise in the area of women and Hollywood. She is the founder and publisher of Women and Hollywood, one of the most respected sites for issues related to women and film as well as other areas of pop culture. Women and Hollywood educates, advocates, and agitates for gender diversity in Hollywood and the global film industry. Media includes: Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly, CNN, The Guardian, The New York Times.
Noreen Farrell is the Executive Director of Equal Rights Advocates (ERA), one of the nation’s leading women’s rights organization, where she has led landmark litigation and policy reform efforts to improve the lives of women and girls at work and school. Honored as one of the Top Women Lawyers and Top Employment Lawyers in California, Noreen has led ERA’s impact litigation efforts representing clients who have faced sex discrimination and other unfair treatment at school and work in numerous individual and class actions. Media includes: NBC, The New York Times, Propublica, The Huffington Post.
Fatima Goss Graves, who has served in numerous roles at the National Women's Law Center before becoming President, has spent her career fighting to advance opportunities for women and girls. Prior to that, as the Center’s Vice President for Education and Employment, she led the Center’s anti-discrimination initiatives, including work to promote equal pay, combat harassment and sexual assault at work and at school. Media includes: The Wshington Post, USA Today, NPR, CNN, CNBC, CSPAN.
Rebecca G. Pontikes, a lawyer and founder of Pontikes Law, LLC, represents employees in all areas of employment law, specializing in gender and family responsibility (caregiver) discrimination and sexual harassment against employees and students. She specializes pursuing the rights of men and women who have been penalized at work because of gender stereotypes. Media includes: The Boston Globe, Lawyers Weekly, New England In House.
Jaclyn Friedman’s work has redefined the concept of “healthy sexuality” and popularized the “yes means yes” standard of sexual consent that is quickly becoming law on many US campuses. Her first book, Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape, was named one of Publishers’ Weekly’s Top 100 Books of 2009, and ranked #11 on Ms. Magazine’s Top 100 Feminist Nonfiction of All Time list. Media includes: CNN, Washington Post, Today Show, TIME, BBC, Salon.
Taina Bien-Aimé is the Executive Director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. CATW is the first and oldest international non-governmental organization dedicated to ending trafficking in women and girls and related forms of commercial sexual exploitation as practices of gender-based violence. Media includes: ABC, CNN, Bloomberg, BBC, Salon, TIME, WNYC.
Sangita Nayak is the public relations coordinator for 9to5, National Association of Working Women, an organization dedicated to engendering economic and social justice and equality in the workplace. Founded more than 30 years ago, 9to5 has emerged as a tireless advocate on behalf of working families, committed to a diverse array of initiatives aimed at ensuring fair compensation, fair policies, and a workplace free of discrimination. Media includes: LAWCAST, the Houston Chronicle, the Miami Herald.
Sasha Stone has been writing about the Oscar race for 16 years, beginning with the website Oscarwatch.com, which changed to AwardsDaily.com in 2006. Although the primary focus of her coverage is film and the Oscar race, her specific focus is on women and diversity within the awards race. She is currently working on a book about women in film. Media includes: New York Times, New York Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, US Magazine.
Rebecca Nagle has received international attention for her creative tactics. She is the founder and co-director of FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, a creative activist effort to upset the culture of rape and promote a culture of consent. In addition to co-directing FORCE, Rebecca has also lectured about rape culture at universities, taught consent workshops, facilitated art therapy sessions with survivors, and consulted media outlets for news stories about rape culture. Media experience: Huffington Post, New York Daily News, New York Magazine, Jezebel, Bitch Media.
Since 2009, JoAnn Buttaro has been a keynote speaker on the subject of rape and sexual assault with experience speaking to groups ranging from victims advocate trainings and Take Back the Night events on college and university campuses across the country. Additional speaking engagements include University of Pennsylvania’s Victimology course each semester for 3 years and a Workshop presenter at the 41st NOVA Conference. Media includes: ABC News 20/20, Investigation Discovery Channel, Out of the Box Podcast.
Dr. Caroline Heldman is chair of the Politics Department at Occidental College. She is a political commentator for MSNBC, Fox Business News, RT America, and Al Jazeera English. Professor Heldman earned her Ph.D. in Political Science from Rutgers University and specializes in the American presidency and systems of power, as well as media, gender, and race in the American context. Media includes: Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, RT-America, KPFK.
Amanda Terkel is Senior Political Reporter and Politics Managing Editor at Huffington Post. Previously, she served as Deputy Research Director at the Center for American Progress and the Managing Editor for The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org, the award-winning top political blog. Media includes: MSNBC, BBC, Fox News, Al Jazeera, New York Times, Politico.
Robin Leeds is the founder and managing director of Winning Strategies LLC, a public affairs and political consulting firm based in Washington, DC. She served at the Clinton White House Office on Women’s Initiatives and Outreach. As a Clinton appointee, Leeds shaped public policy on fair pay, Title IX, affirmative action, voter protection, reproductive rights, health, domestic violence, and sexual harassment. Media includes: The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, France 24, Politico.
Lisalyn R. Jacobs is the CEO of Just Solutions: Bringing in justice to counteract injustice, and the former V.P. of Government Relations for Legal Momentum (formerly NOW Legal Defense & Education Fund). She also fought for and secured needed protections for poor women and survivors of violence in a number of key federal laws including two reauthorizations of the Violence Against Women Act (2005 and 2013). Media includes: he New York Times, NPR, MSNBC, CNN, Fox, Huffington Post.